Today’s the day! My second official tie-in novel to the CBS television show Elementary is out!

A brand-new novel tie-in to the popular Elementary TV series.

The CFO of a secretive NYC hedge fund is found murdered—stabbed through the eye with an expensive fountain pen. Sherlock Holmes and Joan Watson discover a link between the victim and a charismatic touring management guru with a doubtful past. But is the solution so clear-cut or is the guru being framed?

As secrets are revealed and another victim is found murdered in the same grisly fashion, Holmes and Watson begin to uncover a murky world of money and deceit…

Elementary: Blood and Inkis available from your favourite booksellers, but here’s a bunch of handy order links:

The shortlist for the 2016 Scribe Awards has now been announced, and I’m very pleased that my first Elementary novel, The Ghost Line, is a finalist!

The Scribe Awards are given out each year by the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers, and recognise “excellence in this very competitive field”, as their website says. Elementary: The Ghost Line is actually the first tie-in novel I’ve written, so I’m chuffed to see it nominated.

The full shortlist can be found at the Scribe Awards website. The Ghost Lineis up against three other novels in the General category–I’m just glad it’s not in the Speculative category, the shortlist of which features a whopping seven books.

The awards are given out at a special panel held at San Diego Comic Con, which I’ll be at. I’ll post more info when I have it.

In the meantime, don’t forget that the second Elementary novel, Blood and Ink, is out in just over a week!

A brand-new novel tie-in to the popular Elementary TV series.

The CFO of a secretive NYC hedge fund is found murdered—stabbed through the eye with an expensive fountain pen. Sherlock Holmes and Joan Watson discover a link between the victim and a charismatic touring management guru with a doubtful past. But is the solution so clear-cut or is the guru being framed?

As secrets are revealed and another victim is found murdered in the same grisly fashion, Holmes and Watson begin to uncover a murky world of money and deceit…

My second official tie-in novel to the CBS television show Elementary is out in two weeks!

Blood and Ink is another adventure for the modern-day Sherlock Holmes and Joan Watson and their pet tortoise Clyde, and features… well, have a read of the blurb below.

A brand-new novel tie-in to the popular Elementary TV series.

The CFO of a secretive NYC hedge fund is found murdered—stabbed through the eye with an expensive fountain pen. Sherlock Holmes and Joan Watson discover a link between the victim and a charismatic touring management guru with a doubtful past. But is the solution so clear-cut or is the guru being framed?

As secrets are revealed and another victim is found murdered in the same grisly fashion, Holmes and Watson begin to uncover a murky world of money and deceit…

Elementary: Blood and Inkis available from your favourite booksellers, but here’s a bunch of handy order links:

The Amazon.co.uk listing for the UK paperback seems to be broken at the moment. I’ll update the link when it gets fixed.

And to mark the release of Blood and Ink, I’ll be signing at the Forbidden Planet Birmingham Megastore (74 Bull Street, Birmingham, B4 6AD) on Saturday, 23rd April, from 1-2pm. Come along, get the book early, and get stuff signed!

First up, this Thursday (April 7th) sees the UK broadcast of season 4, episode 17, “You’ve Got Me, Who’s Got You?“, written by none other than Paul Cornell. It’s a fun, comicbook-themed episode, and I guarantee it will be a highlight of your TV week. Tune in to Sky Living at 8pm!Paul has written about his episode over at his blog, and posted some behind-the-scenes photos from the filming here.

And out April 26th is the second of my official Elementarytie-in novels, Blood and Ink.

From the official blurb:

A brand-new novel tie-in to the popular Elementary TV series.

The CFO of a secretive NYC hedge fund is found murdered—stabbed through the eye with an expensive fountain pen. Sherlock Holmes and Joan Watson discover a link between the victim and a charismatic touring management guru with a doubtful past. But is the solution so clear-cut or is the guru being framed?

As secrets are revealed and another victim is found murdered in the same grisly fashion, Holmes and Watson begin to uncover a murky world of money and deceit…

I’ve made no secret that the Elementary novels have been the most fun to write ever, and I’m thrilled to add another novel to the canon. If you’re a fan of the show and you dug the first novel, The Ghost Line, I think you’ll like this one. Blood and Ink is available to pre-order now from all your usual places. I’ll post up some links tomorrow.

Turns out 2015 was pretty busy for me, and included a number of firsts! So here’s a quick run down of what happened…

I had three books out this year:

Elementary: The Ghost Line came out in February, and was my first tie-in novel, for one of my favourite TV shows. One to tick off the bucket list! Two more Elementary novels are on the way, with the second one – Blood and Ink – out in April 2016.

And this was the big one – Made to Kill, the first book in The LA Trilogy, came out in November. A lot of stuff happened with that book – it was an Indie Next Pick for December and I did two book tours on that back of it. You can read more about the adventures of Made to Killhere.

Writing-wise, I was so busy this year I kinda lost track. I know I wrote Elementary: Blood and Ink, The Dead Stars, and the first novel in another tie-in trilogy I can’t talk about yet, as well as issues of The Shield with Chuck, and about a dozen or so pitches and proposals for other comics. It was all a little crazy and nearly broke my brain, but hopefully that work will all pay off.

As I mentioned, a lot of stuff happened with Made to Kill, which resulted in a number of other first-time experiences and some amazing opportunities. In July, I went on my first book tour to support the book – which was still five months away – starting with the Locus Awards in Seattle, travelling down the West Coast, and ending up at my first San Diego Comic Con.

Me and Daryl Gregory and our Hawaiian shirts at the Locus awards.

That trip was amazing – I met booksellers and toured their stores, I signed roughly five billion ARCs at the American Library Association expo in San Francisco…

…having negotiated my way through the amazing pride parade (the Supreme Court having just ruled the ban on same sex marriages unconstitutional, so you can imagine atmosphere and the crowds!), and I had the most incredible SDCC experience.

Actually, SDCC was probably the highlight of my year. I was braced for sheer insanity and a mind-numbing volume of bodies… and I loved every minute. I had a Made to KillARC signing with a queue that had its own queue. I was on an SF panel in a ballroom packed to standing. I was on the Dark Circle Comics panel. I met hung out with Mixmaster Mike…

…I was pushed out of the way by Guillermo del Toro’s bodyguards, and I met loads of friends I had only ever known online, and me and Chuck got to admire The Shield in person. Kinda.

Oh, and I saw Rey’s speeder!

But it was also a very businessy con – more than I had expected. I did at least four interviews, two of which were on video, one of which was for the SyFy channel. I had meetings on meetings, including one scheduled for midnight as that’s how busy everyone was.

I think I’m hooked for life.

In November, I did a second book tour, this time hitting the East Coast. Made to Kill was published on November 3rd, and we kicked it off with a joint Shield/M2K launch party at KGB in NYC. Then I headed up to World Fantasy in Saratoga Springs, before a multi-city tour that included my second television interview (this time on the breakfast news on CBS6 in Richmond, Virginia) and bookstore events with Max Gladstone, Chuck, and Mur Lafferty.

And to go with the tours and all the Made to Killgoings-on, my publisher created my first book-specific website, and even made a trailer!

And I’m forever grateful to them – my editor Miriam and my publicist Patty, and everyone else who supported Made to Kill, for the opportunities that came along. Book tours are increasingly rare, and the efforts that went on behind the scenes to give this novel the best launch possible were gargantuan. I’m very lucky, and I know it.

Finally, I rounded off the year with another little book deal, this time for a novella for Tor.com – Standard Hollywood Depravity, a Ray Electromatic Mystery, will be out around September/October 2016, and will set the scene for the second novel, Killing is My Business, which is out in January 2017.

So that was 2015. What about 2016?

The first bit of next year is going to be busy – if not busier – than 2015 was, but one of my goals is to slow down a little. This year was too busy, and there are a couple of upcoming projects I need to stretch my legs on. If I can hit the middle of the year and have stayed on target, then it’ll be golden.

I have three books out in 2016:

Elementary: Blood and Ink is out in April.

Also out in April (I think) is the first of another tie-in trilogy that I can’t talk about yet, so you ain’t seen me, right?

The Shieldcontinues, with issue 2 coming in the early part of the year, and then, as mentioned, hopefully we’ll hit a more regular schedule.

I have another one-shot on the way. Can’t talk about it.

I have two other projects on the go, both creator-owned. I’m not entirely sure either will appear in 2016, but I’m hopeful. And no, I can’t talk about those either.

Writing-wise, there’s a lot to do – a novella, at least five novels, however many comic scripts, a rewrite, and a half-done novel to resurrect and finish. Err, yeah, should keep me busy. With that in mind, one of my New Year’s resolutions is to be more organised – I am quite well organised already, but there is more I can do in that regard.

I’ll also be travelling a fair bit – I’ll be at Phoenix Comic Con, San Diego Comic Con, and if I can swing it, New York Comic Con. I’m not sure about UK events yet, although EasterCon is practically on my doorstep next year so I might go along.

Phew! I hope everyone has a good New Year’s Eve, and I’ll see you in 2016!

Seriously, there should be a word, preferably in Japanese or German, for when you are too busy to update your blog and then the more you dawdle the more you have to post and then when you finally do get around to it you’re sure you’ve missed out all the important stuff and…

Well, anyway. This year has been kinda crazy – the second half, especially, which featured two US book tours and the release last month of a little book that I kinda love.

When it came out last month, I was a little preoccupied in New York City, sharing the stage at KGB with Chuck Wendig as we toasted not just that book, but the comic we write together, The Shield.

That photo actually comes from the event Chuck and I did in Doylestown, PA, a week later. I seem to have lost most of my pix from NYC, thanks to my computer’s hard drive failing as soon as I got back to the UK. Probably just as well. I’ll see if I can unearth anything for a post about that book tour.

But while I was racing around the East Coast, visiting eight cities and chalking up a lot of airmails, Made to Kill was working hard…

Made to Killis an Indie Next Pick for December! The full list is up at IndieBound, and let’s just say that any list I’m on that also features the likes of Umberto flippin’ Eco is a bit of a Big. Deal.

Genre mash-ups don’t always succeed, but this one will please fans of both gumshoes and laser beams.

SFX Magazine, along with posting a mini-interview with me, and a two-page extract from the book, gave Made to Kill a 5-star review and a rare “SFX Loves” badge, saying:

Made to Kill is book one of a trilogy. We’d happily go for more than three.

In a faultless review, NPR said Made to Kill was a “pulp pastiche that hits the mark”, adding:

Made to Kill is the first installment of a planned trilogy, but it has all the potential of an open-ended series; knowing there are only two more Raymond Electromatic mysteries to come is the book’s only disappointment.

That’s great news, because Christopher has hit on something that I’d hardly suspected before, and now can’t get enough of.

While I was in the US, I did my first ever television interview, for CBS6’s Virginia This Morning, broadcast out of Richmond, VA.

Needless to say, this was a slightly surreal experience (particularly as it involved a 5am flight out of Cincinnati, Ohio, that morning, just to get to the studio on time), but in my caffeine and candy bar fuelled state I managed to talk coherently (I hope!) about Made to Kill and my work on the Elementary tie-in novels.

The full interview is embedded at their website, and can be seen here.

Comic Book Resources broke the news in an exclusive yesterday – we’ve had a change of artist on The Shield, and I’m rather delighted to say our new chap on the job is Drew Johnson.

Drew is a superb artist, well known for his work on Wonder Woman. Just check out that promo image he conjured up to go with the CBR announcement, with brilliant colours by Kelly Fitzpatrick.

The switch does mean that The Shield #1 has been pushed back to July – full details, including updated soliciations, are at the link.

In other news, I’m happy to confirm what was really a not particularly closely guarded secret – I’m back to write the second Elementary tie-in novel. Yay! And I can’t wait to get stuck in – the book doesn’t have a title yet, and the release date is what you might call “up in the air”, but I can promise another rip-roaring New York adventure for Sherlock and Joan.

Huzzah! More info on that title as I have it. In the meantime, if you’re curious about the first book in the series, The Ghost Line, you can read a wee excerpt here, and then you can jump here for some order links.

And for any Holmes fans heading to the SherlockeDCC night during San Diego Comic Con, hosted by the wonderful Baker Street Babes – I will see you there!

Last week I talked to the wonderful Baker Street Babes podcast about The Ghost Line. The interview was loads of fun, and you can hear it here.

The Baker Street Babes are also giving away two copies of the book, one via Twitter and one via their website. You can find full details of the contest here. Entries close on March 12th!

Also, two neat review of the book have popped up. Starburst magazine gave it a whopping 9/10, and said:

For our money, the real selling point of this book is how superbly the author has captured the voices of the characters. All of the regulars sound exactly like they do in the series, but in particular Sherlock’s voice has been nailed so well it’s practically buried in the ground.

This is where the novel really shines; like all the best tie-in fiction it’s like we’re watching an episode of the TV show. If for whatever reason Christopher decides that writing novels is no longer for him, we’re sure that he’d be able to get himself a job on the Elementary writing staff. But screenwriting’s gain would very much be the reader’s loss.

For a tie-in novel, there is no higher praise. I’m over the moon with that kind of response.

It’s fun, boasting the familiar levels of humour that comes with the show, and incredibly entertaining with some great characterisations of Sherlock and Watson that feel right at home with the TV series. In fact, it’s written so well that this book actually feels like it could be an episode of the TV series.